What Does It Mean to Be Jewish in Modern Israel?

The key to a good life is in harmonious human connections. If we build a society that feels like a family, the problems from which we all suffer will be resolved. Where do these ideas come from, and why have we not yet seen them materialize? The answer is in the code of development embedded in nature and in the secret of life itself.

As human beings, we are part of nature, and nature operates according to laws. Forces are constantly at work in it. We have already identified some of these forces, while others remain hidden. We study nature through scientific tools, formulate theories, and conduct experiments. Yet there is another instrument of inquiry that belongs to a different level of perception, one that we have not yet come to know.

This instrument is connection, and it is built through a unique form of connection between people. It has principles that need to be learned, practiced, and internalized. When we succeed in doing so, a mechanism of connection becomes formed that resembles the mechanism of connection that exists throughout nature. Through this mechanism, we begin to uncover hidden forces and laws within nature, forces that operate behind the scenes and influence us.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, these forces are developing us to a state in which we will be connected to each other in complete harmony. At the peak of our development, we will be united “as one man with one heart” and will discover the single force that exists in the entire system of nature, throughout all creation. This is the force of life. Its quality is love and bestowal. When it flows among us, we will rise together to a new level of existence, one that is eternal and perfect.

In general, all the problems on earth stem from that in which human beings use their amplified ego incorrectly. Unlike the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, which take only what they need for survival and no more, human beings possess a desire to receive more and more. This causes us to become absorbed in material pursuits instead of developing the spiritual dimension within us. It also causes people to live in a state of continual conflict, systematically damaging one another’s lives.

If we were to observe our lives from outside the planet, we would probably struggle to understand what goes on in the minds of these creatures and why they are constantly fighting. Technological progress has reached a level at which a good life could be provided for every human being if only we treated one another like loving siblings. Yet from day to day, ego-driven struggles intensify, and the world moves closer to nuclear war.

Compared to previous generations, we live like royalty. Yet we see that our world is full of despair, depression, and countless other forms of suffering. Our era is the age of gray lives. It is uncomfortable to think too deeply about it, so we keep running. We play the game like everyone else, trying to accumulate achievements in career, family, and children, and suddenly you are 40, 50, and 60, living on autopilot. The goal is simply not to be a loser, not to have less than others. And just as we entered the world one day, so we leave it. We spend 70 years or more moving about, only to disappear again. What is the benefit? What is the meaning? What is the purpose? We do not know.

In the natural world, everything has a cause, yet it often seems as though some kind of experiment is being conducted on us that we do not understand. But there is an opportunity to discover the secret of life. It depends on aligning our form with the integral form of nature’s overall system. If we learn how to resemble nature as a whole, if we stop interfering with its general frequency, we will begin to perceive how things work and where we are being led.

Throughout nature, life develops through the connection of opposites. Positive and negative charges, for example, are opposites, yet when nature combines them in various ways, life advances. This is true on the scale of the tiniest particles and also on the scale of vast celestial bodies. Only among human beings do we lack integral, complementary, and mutually supportive connections. Our bodies live and function because such relationships exist among their different organs, yet we are unable to replicate these relationships on the interpersonal or social level.

The sages therefore taught, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the fundamental principle. It is a description of the code of connection through which it is possible to break through the limits of our current egoistic perception. Through it, we can attain the entirety of nature, or if we prefer, God.

This discovery stood at the foundation of our people. It was Abraham the Babylonian who studied nature and discovered that a single force stands behind all individual forces. Accordingly, Abraham taught kindness and love of others as a means of bringing unity among all created beings.

In those days, a great conflict erupted in the extensive civilization that existed in the region of Mesopotamia. A Midrash on the story of the Tower of Babel says that “half the world fell by the sword,” describing how Abraham tried to explain how people could rise above narrow egoism and create a state of harmonious connection and complementarity. Most people did not listen to him, and eventually they dispersed throughout the world. Those who did connect with his idea formed a community from which the Israeli nation later emerged.

The entire Jewish culture, its holidays, rituals, and customs, was at its core aimed at one point: connection above all differences, love above rejection and division, in order to become aligned with nature’s unity and connected to the one force. Such development is defined as spiritual development, and there is a complete method for achieving it, which is taught in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It teaches that being Jewish means attaining unity with the general force of nature, becoming like it. To be Israeli means to direct oneself straight at that force, toward its quality of love and bestowal.

Throughout history, our people have experienced both rises and falls. There were periods when we entered into a positive connection and periods when division brought ruin upon us. Although we were returned to the land in the last century, spiritually we have not yet arisen as the people of Israel. This is why the state is disintegrating from within. At the same time, antisemitism is once again increasing around the world, and hostility toward Israel continues to grow.

Out of this darkness, we are called to engage in self-examination. Within us lies a method for creating harmonious connection between people and attaining complete happiness. We need it here, and the world is waiting for it as well. Every delay in sharing it brings greater pressure upon us, because people feel that Israel is responsible for the world’s problems and is withholding something beneficial from humanity.

As we aspire to realize connection among the people of Israel, we will begin to discover among us the upper force of love and bestowal. Accordingly, abundance will begin to flow into our lives. In the story of the spies whom Moses sent to scout the Land of Israel, they discovered fruits of extraordinary size. The cluster of grapes they carried on a pole between two people symbolizes the abundance of the Land of Israel. Similarly, Israel will be filled with abundance when we learn how to positively connect.

When we will feel like we live in an ideal family, one that is well-connected and caring, then every area of life in the country will improve: the economy, security, education, culture, leadership and government, tourism, commerce, foreign relations, Israel’s image in the world, and even the safety of Jews and Israelis living or traveling abroad.

When the State of Israel was established, the menorah was chosen as its symbol, a symbol of light and life. When we begin building our lives on connection and mutual responsibility, the light of life will spread throughout the world. The harmonious connection that dwells among us will then positively influence the world and unite it, because we will resemble the life-giving force of nature, the force of love and bestowal.

People say that the Jews shape the course of the world. Today, we are given not only the opportunity but also the responsibility to help turn the world toward goodness.